Marshall Sanford: “I thank both of my colleagues for their counterpoints, and I understand absolutely this notion of competitiveness. I…”

“I thank both of my colleagues for their counterpoints, and I understand absolutely this notion of competitiveness. I agree with Thomas Friedman, the world is flat; and we are in a global competition for jobs, capital, and way of life. Look at, again, the fundamentals of this program. I have here a GAO-- Government Accountability Office--report that says the cost of participating in this program outweighs the benefits to companies. That is a GAO report, not a private sector report, not a rightwing report. I think it is also interesting, in pulling this letter that was, again, written by a supplicant to the agency itself, said that the due diligence process in their attempt--and they ultimately quit--but their attempt to get a loan was more than 1,175 days. His point in this letter was that that was more than tenuous and, frankly, had much to do with their ultimately ceasing and desisting. I would also make this point: they have only made five loans. If we were depending on these five loans for innovation in new technology in the way that internal combustion engines work or the way that we burn fossil fuel, we are in real trouble, but five loans is what we are talking about. I would also make this point: I think, at some point, given the scarcity of resources that we do deal with in Washington, D.C., we have to at some level make a divide between big companies. Ford's market cap is $63 billion. Alcoa's is $16 billion.…”